Digital Character Animation (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is a beautiful, full-color guide to creating 2-D and 3-D animated characters. Author George Maestri explains the aspects of creating animated figures, discussing anatomy, animated bodies, heads, and hands, poses and locomotion, anthropomorphic and facial animation, digital sets, and film-making. There are countless tips on animation, such as making a head turn and eyes blink, showing realistic laughter, speech, and body language, squashing and stretching characters, working out timing issues, and arranging characters onscreen as effectively as possible. Maestri doesn't emphasize any one software package or platform, though he does assume that you're doing mostly 3-D work. He writes for users of high-end packages such as 3-D Studio MAX and Soft Image, with their support for inverse kinematics and skeletal deformations, as well as for users of lower-end packages such as Strata and RayDream Studio. A hybrid CD-ROM includes models, textures, and animations for the book's projects. Beginners and expert animators can learn a great deal from this impressive book.

Product Description

This book covers the essential information computer animators need to generate believable characters in 2D and 3D on the computer. The book covers the nuance and technique of character animation in great detail. CD contains Quicktime and AVI examples of multiple walk cycles, lip sync examples, and other techniques from the book; 3D models; texture maps; and software demos of programs that provide animation capabilities.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 369 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing; Bk&CD-Rom edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562055593
• ISBN-13: 978-1562055592
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,106,870 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very fine book, but missing a little bit., April 30, 1999

By	dennis summers (royal oak, MI United States) - See all my reviews

I will probably be using this book for a class in 3D animation that I teach. However, as good as it is, and it is excellent, I wish it was just a bit more technical, and perhaps up to date. In an environment that changes constantly, all of the author's concepts are sound and will last forever. However, more technical detail, especially in something like IK, would make this book perfect.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No one should be without it!, November 9, 1998

By A Customer

George Maestri have succeded in writing a good explanatory book. It handles the complex matter of character animation well, and it is also application independent all the way. The best part , according to me, is the chapter that explains how the character design makes a character believable. A plus is all the pictures that goes with the examples and the explanations about the differences between different modelling techniques. Keep up the good work, George!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read on Character Animation, February 17, 1998

By A Customer

I felt that this book not only was excellently written and organized but also offered many tips and tricks to anyone in the field. The subject matter is easily inderstood and can be followed and used in many different situations. I myself do not have the hardware or software capable of anything higher than free form modelling-(limited) with Ray Dream Studio 4.0, however I now have the knowledge and the understanding of how the different tools work when I do work with the higher end software and hardware. Overall this book makes for an excellent reference and should be on everyone's desk if they plan on working in this field.